Tottenham Hotspur: 10 Biggest Letdowns of Harry Redknapp Era

It's finally set in. After a week, the shock of Tottenham sacking Harry Redknapp has become a reality.

There's a lot of reasons for Redknapp's need to step down at White Hart Lane. His tactics weren't always the best and he caused a distraction or two during Spurs' title run this season.

However, in my opinion, it was the expensive letdowns that did Redknapp in.

Players like Peter Crouch, Alan Hutton and Ricardo Rocha were a drain on the limited finances the club was willing to spend in the first place. These players and more never produced quality enough to consistently qualify for the lucrative Champions League.

Redknapp was a great motivator and leader, but his (and the club's) choices of players was ultimately his undoing.

Who were the biggest letdowns of the Harry Redknapp era? Join me and find out.

10. Louis Saha

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I know that it's hard for former Everton man Louis Saha to be considered a letdown. After all, how many expectations were placed on the 33-year-old after he decided to come over to White Hart Lane during the most recent winter transfer window?

9. Bongani Khumalo

Bongani Khumalo is everything Tottenham needs at centre-back these days—he's young, he's a mammoth of a man and he's a brute when it comes to dispossessing opponents.

There's only one small problem: Khumalo's not very good.

Claimed from South African club SuperSport United in January of 2011 for a transfer fee of £1.5 million, Khumalo hasn't made it onto the pitch for one meaningful match for Spurs, opting rather as first-choice for loaning out to such lower-tier clubs as Preston North End and Reading.

8. Steven Pienaar

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In January of 2011, attacking winger Pienaar was in the middle of a tug-of-war match between Tottenham and Chelsea with the former earning his services with the promise of a transfer fee of £3 million and a four-year contract.

Expectations were moderate.

After all, it was a few million euros and a four-year contract to boot.

Less than one year later, he was on the transfer block again, having only been good enough for 18 appearances in all competitions and not scoring in any of them.

7. Wilson Palacios

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In January of 2009, Tottenham thought the answers to their midfield problems were solved. They had wrestled centre-midfielder Wilson Palacios away from struggling Wigan Athletic, but for a king's ransom—the transfer fee alone was £12 million!

As one of the most expensive signings in Spurs history, expectations were high for Palacios to perform and for the club to be better in possession and defense.

The second half of the 2008-2009 season, he learned Tottenham's tactics and he started the majority of the 2009-2010 season, earning 33 appearances, but a nagging knee injury handicapped him, leaving him to only earn 11 appearances in the 2010-11 season—his last at White Hart Lane.

He jumped ship in August of 2011 with Peter Crouch as the pair went on to Stoke City where Palacios is still hampered by inconsistency in fitness.

5. Roman Pavlyuchenko

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Coming to Tottenham from Spartak Moscow for a £14 million transfer fee, expectations were high for Pavlyuchenko when he came to Spurs in 2008.

He didn't quite respond in his first season in league play, collecting only five goals from the striker position, but he did well against inferior competition in FA Cup and League Cup play, earning nine goals in eight appearances.

His second season, he was relegated to just 16 league appearances, but that seemed to light a fire under him. In his third season, 2010-11, he had 14 goals in all appearances, including four in European play.

The honeymoon didn't last long.

According to The Daily Mail, a training ground run-in with Tottenham's second-in-command manager, Kevin Bond, was his undoing. Weeks later, he was back in Russia, with Lokomotiv Moscow for just £8 million, nearly half the transfer fee it cost to get him to London in the first place.

1. David Bentley

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Here we have it—the crème de la crème of letdowns in Tottenham's history: David Bentley.

The fourth-most expensive signing in Spurs history, Bentley came to White Hart Lane from Blackburn Rovers for a transfer fee of £15 million with the option to earn £2 million in performance incentives.

What did Redknapp get for his lucrative investment in the gifted winger? 42 league appearances and three goals.

Tottenham was able to loan him out to sides Birmingham City and West Ham United, but he was never able to establish himself in the first-team and was sent packing from both second-tier clubs.